Alcoholic myopathy: evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging--a case study.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of thigh and leg muscles was performed in a patient with alcoholic myopathy showing myalgia, hypercreatine kinasemia, and hypermyoglobinemia. High signal intensities in both T1- and T2-weighted images were widely distributed in the affected muscle groups, which most likely reflected lipid accumulation. Although he had hypermyoglobinemia, MRI and muscle biopsy did not show findings of rhabdomyolysis, such as necrosis, regeneration, and edema. We suggest that the high signal intensities in this case may have indicated "prerhabdomyolysis" related to alcohol abuse and that muscle MRI is useful in the evaluation of alcoholic myopathy, mainly predicting the onset of rhabdomyolysis.